Shamrock Rovers' ominous form means FAI Cup could take on extra significance for League of Ireland rivals
EVERY year, we journalists ask the same silly question, and every year, managers give us the same answer.
'You don't win anything in March, April, May or June.'
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Jack Byrne has returned to top form of late
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Shelbourne could really do with taking all three point tonight against the Hoops
It is always true of course. But the mood swings of fanbases and the madness of results in the League of Ireland mean it often feels as if titles are won and lost every Friday.
Yet as the season resumes tonight after a two-week break, the summer period could be make-or-break for a lot of clubs.
Shamrock Rovers
Two weeks ago, in this column I wrote that it looked like they could run away with it.
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Fortunately for me, I qualified that by pointing out how it could change. That evening, Galway did a job on them to
Rovers still have a six-point advantage as they return with a game against Shelbourne tonight.
Whatever goes down, don't be surprised to see a quote tomorrow from both Damien Duff and Bradley declaring that you don't win titles in June.
A Shels victory will tighten up the table again and give the Reds hope that they can put the inconsistencies of their title defence behind them.
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But if Rovers were to disappear out of sight, it really does make the summer make-or-break for everyone else as the FAI Cup is an even bigger prize than it has been previously — thanks to the Hoops.
That's because Rovers' Conference League run last season means the LOI is now ranked among the top 32 leagues in Europe — which guarantees the cup winners a Europa spot.
Thomas Frank is announced as new Tottenham manager
Instead of entering in the Conference League second round, they'll begin in the Europa League first round but be parachuted into the Conference League if they lose.
That means a guaranteed €700,000 for the 2025 FAI Cup winners compared to the guaranteed €525,000 for Drogheda United this year after Kevin Doherty led them to glory,
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The 'cup winners' path' may not be as lucrative as the 'champions' path'.
But having multiple chances in Europe has been shown to be the best way to the group stages historically.
League of Ireland clubs have now reached the group stages five times — Rovers in 2011, 2022 and 2024, and Dundalk in 2016 and 2020 — and all benefited from a parachute.
But July also sees Shels, Rovers, St Pat's and — hopefully — Drogheda go into European action with ambitions.
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Drogs' position is in doubt over Uefa rules on multi-club ownership. They'll enter as an unseeded team in the second round of the Conference League.
If Uefa refuse them admission, Rovers enter in the second round as a seeded team and will have high hopes of making another Europe dent.
Currently they're in the first round and are the highest-ranked team there.
But coming from the first round, they will need to win four rounds to make the group stages.
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MEMORABLE DUNDALK RUN
Only one Irish side has ever won three ties in a row — and that was Dundalk in 2020 the matches were one leg, a world away from the two-legged chess matches now.
St Pat's came as close as anyone else to doing it last season when Stephen Kenny's side — who entered in the second round as cup winners — ultimately lost to Basaksehir of Turkey.
The Saints are also seeded in the first round and, if they progress, would be one of the strongest unseeded teams in the second round.
They'll hope that their erratic first half of the season is just part of their DNA and they'll come good in the second half as they have now for three years in a row.
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But Shels, as champions, have all the cards.
They know a victory in the first round will guarantee European football until the end of August at least, and three shots at group-stage football.
They're unseeded which makes for a nervous wait for next week's draw.
But a good run and Duff and Co could see Shels become the third LOI club to make the group stages.
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All involved will be hoping that European football is more of a long-lasting relationship than a summer fling.
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Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Raging McIlroy finds late magic to make cut as Oakmont leaves Lowry at low ebb
With the skies about to open above him, Rory McIlroy pulled himself out of the hellish challenge that has been Oakmont these past 48 hours and fired a heavenly closing birdie to make the cut on Friday night. Standing on the 18th tee at 7-over for the year's third major, the cutline moving up and down between +6 and +7, McIlroy knew only a birdie could guarantee his run of six-straight US Open cuts made. With playing partners Shane Lowry and Justin Rose having long since succumbed to the horrors of the Pittsburgh course, his was the only fate to be decided. After a post-Masters run that has defied expectations and, at times, belief, McIlroy found a little bit of vintage magic. How badly he needed it. American Sam Burns had set the pace with a morning 65 which got all the more impressive as Friday progressed in Western Pennsylvania. By nightfall Burns was the outright halfway leader at 3-under, one of just three of the 156 in the field to remain under par. Overnight leader JJ Spaun did his best to cling in there but otherwise those who began in the red felt the creep of the black. Big names joined Lowry and Rose in falling by the wayside too, defending champion Bryson DeChambeau and Ludvig Aberg among them. From start to finish there were crooked scores everywhere and the organisers even found time in the darkening hours for an absurd weather delay which meant a handful of misfortunates have to return on Saturday morning, when rough weather is expected to play a major factor throughout the third round. Friday at Oakmont featured plenty of Irish carnage as Lowry leaned into another expletive-laced reaction to major struggles then picked up an inexplicable penalty stroke while McIlroy tossed a club down the fairway on one hole and later smashed a tee marker for good measure. Birdie for the weekend 🐦@McIlroyRory converts to make it inside the projected cutline @ — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 13, 2025 However on his pivotal final hole of the round the Holywood man composed himself to find his best tee-to-cup performance since his third hole the previous day. A perfect drive set him up for his most sparkling wedge of the week finding the last fraction of a degree of undulation to bring the ball back to just four feet. He rolled in the birdie for a 2-over 72 that in the circumstances may be his best round since Augusta. That's probably an overstatement or a bias towards how he finished it. Because it started in spectacularly hideous fashion, a calamitous double bogey on the first added to with another on the third to push him to 8-over overall and well outside the cut line. From there it was slow progress, in terms of both moment and plain ol actual progress, the pace of play disgracefully slow. He birdied the 9th to turn in brighter form but gave one back on the 11th and laboured a little until another arrived at the 15th. Shane Lowry won't be hanging around and won't be eager to ever discuss his visit to Pittsburgh this time around. A 54-hole leader here in 2016, this was a sequel which proved to be a box office bomb. The Offaly man left with a two-round card that by his high standards looked nothing short of diabolical. He followed up his Thursday 79 with an 8-over 78 to leave the grounds with an ugly +17 to the right of his name on the leaderboard. Below him were just 16 players, a grouping which you wouldn't describe as a golfing who's who but a who's he? Where to start with Lowry's fiendish Friday? How about the fact that on the 14th green he bent to mark his ball and pick it up but forgot to do the first bit. The vision of the slow dawning of what he'd just done, as he stood with ball in hand and marker in pocket was a vision of what the place can do to the best in the game. Lowry so rarely looked like a member of the elite unfortunately. Of all the places to need a fast start, Oakmont may be the last you'd pick. Looking for birdies, Lowry found an opening bogey on the confiding 1st and followed it with a double and two more bogeys before he stepped on to the 5th. He was +14 and wanted to be anywhere else. There was a throwback to his misery at Quail Hollow when he repeated his 'f*** this place' line after that third bogey. His only birdie of the week arrived so late it felt early, on the par-4 7th but there was further woe on the way home, bogeys on 10, the brain fart on 14 and one last bogey on 15. As he congratulated McIlroy for making the cut, Lowry joked and laughed with his friend. 'Rather you than me,' may have been the gist of it. Lowry spoke to the Examiner last week about how hard he has found recent weeks with his wife and children already back in Ireland for the summer. He has one more event before he heads home for six weeks but as he prepares for a weighty return to the Open at Portrush, there can be no hiding the need for work. Lowry's 2025 major season reads as follows: a closing 81 at Augusta to plummet down the field, a missed cut at Quail Hollow and a tie for 138th at an Oakmont course where he was widely expected to contend. Not great. For McIlroy, a wholly unpredictable weekend awaits. As afternoon scores spiked and big names tumbled, some made the point that Scottie Scheffler may have sat at 4-over but in a tie for 23rd, just seven back with only three major wins between him and the lead. McIlroy is just two further back on the course which offers up the least predictability in golf.
Irish Independent
2 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Rory McIlroy overcomes club throwing and tee marker smashing tantrums to make US Open cut but Shane Lowry bows out
As Shane Lowry added to his putting torture by absent-mindedly picking up his ball on the 14th green without marking it, incurring a one-shot penalty en route to an eight-over 78 that left him on 17-over, McIlroy shot a battling 72 that left him nine shots behind clubhouse leader Sam Burns on six-over despite his frustration reaching boiling point on the back nine. He was four-over for the day and eight-over for the championship, a shot outside the cut line, when he hooked his second 20 yards left into deep rough at the 647-yard 12th. Utterly exasperated, he used both hands to propel his club 30 yards down the fairway. While he walked away with a par there, he missed a 12 foot birdie chance at the short 13th, leaving him needing to play his last five holes one-under to dip inside the top 60 and ties who make the weekend. He made a 20-footer for a birdie at the tough 15th to get back to seven-over but after missing from 35 feet at the 16th, pushed his three wood into a deep bunker at the 305-yard 17th, turned and lashed out at the left tee marker, splitting it in two. He was on the projected seven-over cut mark playing the 18th and blasted a massive, 373-yard drive down the last before brushing in a five footer for birdie and a 72 that left him nine shots behind clubhouse Burns on six-over. It was a rollercoaster day for the Irish duo, who started the day well off the pace — McIlroy eight shots off the lead on four-over and Lowry two shots off the predicted cut on plus-nine. The Offaly man was so keen to improve on his dismal putting performance in the first round that he went to the putting green with coach Neil Manchip in the early morning, nearly five hours before his afternoon tee time. But it made little difference as both he and McIlroy suffered a brutal start on Oakmont's front nine, dropping nine shots between them over the first four holes alone. McIlroy made a double bogey six at the first as he drove into sand left, pitched out sideways and then took four to get down from there as his third scuttled off the green into heavy rough. ADVERTISEMENT He managed to par the second but double bogeyed the third as he caught the face of the bunker with his second, then fired his third through the green into more heavy rough. He was eight over for the tournament after just three holes of his second round but it was an even tougher start for Lowry. The 2016 runner-up at Oakmont also overshot the first green from the rough and made bogey, then took six at the 359-yard second when he flew into the back bunker with his second and failed to get out the first time of asking. He went on to drop shots at the next two holes, joining McIlroy in flying through the back at the third before three-putting from six feet for bogey at the 626-yard fourth. He went on to birdie the seventh from 15 feet — his first red number since his eagle two at the third on Thursday — and turned for home on 13-over. McIlroy birdied the ninth from 33 feet for his first birdie since his third hole in the first round to turn for home needing a level par back nine to have any chance of avoiding missing the cut. He dropped a shot at the 11th, which explained his frustration at the 12th while Lowry bogeyed the 10th and could only smile as he mistake on thee 14th green cost him two shots. Facing a 55 footer for par, he bent down without thinking and picked up the ball before realising he'd forgotten to put down a mark. Another shot went for the Clara man at the 15th as his high hopes of a big week evaporated with that opening 79. American Sam Burns held the clubhouse lead on three-under after putting brilliantly for a best-of-the-week, five-under 65. He was one shot clear of first round leader JJ Spaun (72) and two clear of Viktor Hovland who shot a 68. Russell Henley (72) and two-time US Open winner Brooks Koepka (74) were five behind two-over while world number one Scottie Scheffler (71), former winner Jon Rahm (75) and two-time major champion Collin Morikawa (74) were in a group seven shots behind Burns. 'Honestly, I'm too annoyed and too mad right now to think about any perspective,' Rahm said after taking 35 putts. 'Very frustrated. Very few rounds of golf I played in my life where I think I hit good putts and they didn't sniff the hole, so it's frustrating.' Scheffler was also out of sorts but pleased to 'get away' with a 71. 'I'm four-over,' Scheffler said. 'We'll see what the lead is after today, but around this golf course I don't think by any means I'm out of the tournament.'
Irish Independent
2 hours ago
- Irish Independent
US Open second round as it happened – Rory McIlroy wins cut battle at Oakmont
The US Open continues today at the unforgiving Oakmont course in Pennsylvania. Irish hopefuls Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry were paired together for the first two rounds but struggled until a late burst from McIlroy ensured he made the weekend while Shane Lowry failed to make the cut. Relive all the action as it happened here. 79 US Open Leaderboard - Day 2: Sam Burns -3 (65) J.J. Spaun -2 (74) Viktor Hovland -1 (68) Adam Scott E (70) Thomas Detry E (16*) Selected others: Scottie Scheffler +4 (71) Rory McIlroy +6 (72) Xander Schauffele +6 (74) Shane Lowry +17 (79) 9 minutes ago That's all for tonight folks! Read Brian Keogh's post-round summary here, as Rory McIlroy birdies two of his final four holes to make the weekend, where he will look for something in the 60s to give himself a chance on Sunday. Three players under par and so far this week, Oakmont is the real winner. Goodnight! Rory McIlroy overcomes club throwing and tee marker smashing tantrums to make US Open cut but Shane Lowry bows out Rory McIlroy 'helicoptered' a club 30 yards and smashed a tee mark in frustration but still brilliantly birdied two of his last four holes to make the cut in the US Open at a brutal Oakmont. 26 minutes ago Rory makes a brilliant birdie on 18 to make the weekend! After a 373 yard drive, McIlroy hits a brilliant wedge which catches the slope and moves to five feet below the hole...a dn he drains the putt to move to six-over-par and guarantees the world number two weekend golf. Its a two-over 72 to leave him on six-over-par, but what a battling round of golf around a really tough test. Can he post a score early tomorrow and make a run at getting back into this golf tournament. Who knows? Shane Lowry shoots an eight-over-par 79 and he will not be here at the weekend but he has a good laugh with his good pal as they exit the green. U.S. Open on Twitter / X See you this weekend, 2011 champion will make the cut at Oakmont. U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 13, 2025 31 minutes ago Oakmont and Thomas Detry in a nutshell U.S. Open on Twitter / X Golf is a crazy game, Detry's last three holes - double, double, birdieHe's back to even par. U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 13, 2025 37 minutes ago Thirston Lawrence makes double to move over-par, Detry birdies to get back to level par It's a horrible double on the par-five fourth hole for the South African and now there are only three players under par. Thomas Detry birdies the 7th to halt the double-bogey run and move back to level-par. 41 minutes ago Rory McIlroy, what a drive down the 18th! He needed a good drive and he launches it 373 yards down the fairway, leaving himself just 123 into the hole. Can he finish with a birdie? 43 minutes ago McIlroy's birdie putt on 17 slides by and he settles for par It was a fantastic bunker shot from Rory but his birdie putt slides by and he heads to the 18th seven-over-par, needing a par or better to make the weekend. A good drive and he can use the slope for his second, but he needs to find the fairway. 47 minutes ago Adam Scott shows his experience over first two days That's how you play Oakmont! 70-70 for Adam Scott and he is three back of the lead heading to the weekend. Can the 2013 Masters champion add the US Open to his collection. 52 minutes ago Rory takes chunk out of tee marker as his tee shot finds the trap, but he still has a birdie look. McIlroy's tee shot on the drivable 17th is in the deep front bunker, and he takes his frustration out on a tee marker. His bunker shot is good and it leaves him 12 feet for a crucial birdie. 54 minutes ago Second double in a row for Detry means only four players are under par Thomas Detry completely fluffs his chip on the par-three sixth, and his bogey putt slips by, and he drops one-over-par. Three doubles, a hole-out eagle, Oakmont gives you everything, and Detry has had it all. 58 minutes ago Burns is your solo leader after JJ Spaun bogeys 18 It's a horrible break for Spaun, as his ball hits the downslope and shoots long of the green leaving him an impossible chip, which he leaves short and two putts later, it's a bogey and a second round 72 to leave him two-under-par. He will still be delighted with his position heading into the weekend. Today 06:29 PM The putt that has Rory inside the cut-line He makes a really good two-putt par on the tough par-three he find a birdie on the drivable 17th? U.S. Open on Twitter / X A smile, and a 🐥, for Rory on the difficult par-4 15th gets him back inside the current cut line. U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 13, 2025 External contentWhen displaying external content, data is transferred to third parties. Today 06:28 PM Lawrence drops to one-under after finding the church pew bunkers His fairway bunker shot is heavy and he leaves his chip eight feet short and the putt doesn't drop and he falls to one-under-par. He has had only two pars through 12 holes today. That's Oakmont for you! Today 06:26 PM Detry doubles to drop out of the lead It's a short miss for Detry at the fifth, his 14th and he falls to one-under-par, two back. Today 06:21 PM Bad run for Bryson ends his chances of making the weekend DeChambeau has a torrid spell, going double bogey-bogey-bogey to go from inside the cut line to 10-over-par and he will not be around for the weekend. Today 06:17 PM Lawrence bogeys to fall out of the lead, Detry birdies to join it! Lawrence fails to get out of the bunker, finding the rough and ends up with bogey to drop one back and Thomas Detry makes a birdie on the par-five fourth to join the lead. Today 06:13 PM Spaun drains it on the short 17th to join the lead once again U.S. Open on Twitter / X Bounceback birdie indeed! 🐥J.J. Spaun once again moves into a share of the U.S. Open lead. U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 13, 2025 Today 06:11 PM Rory drains a brilliant putt to move inside the cut mark! Another 20 footer goes down for Rory and he moves to seven-over-par, inside the cutline. The longer the putt, the more makeable it is for Rory it seems. Today 06:04 PM Another bogey for Spaun, who falls out of the lead The first round leader drops out of the lead to two-under-par with two bogeys in-a-row. Lawrence is also in trouble on the second, his 11th and soon Sam Burns could be in the lead on his own. Live Blog Software
